4 Ultimate Organisation Tips For Teachers

Ready for the ultimate list of organisation tips for teachers? Let’s do it…

“We’re not going to lie, organising and cleaning can be hard—it requires work, time, and thoughtfulness. But with the right systems in place and rules to follow… we promise you’ll get there” The Home Edit.

We have been major fans of The Home Edit (well, Ashleigh has) long before Netflix jumped on the organisation bandwagon (Alisha just needed Ashleigh to show her the way). So in light of our love for The Home Edit, all things organisation and ROYGBIV here is our checklist for getting your classroom and teacher mind in order.

Psst: Read to the end to get a printable version of our teacher organisation checklist.

7 Organisation Tips for Teachers for when things feel a little overwhelming

Clear Your Desk – #1 Organisation Tips for Teachers

A clean and well-organised desk will help clear your cluttered mind. Minimise items on the surface of your desk, by having a system for cords, paperwork and technology such as phones, tablets and computers. We suggest cutting down on the number of pens and stamps you have lying around also.

Minimise stationery and keep similar items stored together.

Do an Email Overhaul – #2 Organisation Tips for Teachers

There is no better feeling than a clear inbox. Start by immediately deleting any emails sitting there that are old or you don’t need to read. Follow up by reading and actioning anything you can do in under 5 minutes so you can get them out of the way and begin to tackle the bigger, more time-consuming emails.

Other email tips: We like to create folders in our inbox, and either file our emails in these folders or archive them immediately. We also organise our inbox, so all unread emails are at the top. If something needs action, we keep it unread and starred, so it is a reminder that we need to get to it as soon as possible.

Finally, do yourself a favour and unsubscribe from any email lists you don’t enjoy reading. You can also get services that collate and put all your subscription emails in one email. Unroll me will not only create a daily round-up email for you, but they also allow you to unsubscribe from any list with a simple click. GENIUS!

Catch up on Marking and Data Entry – #3 Organisation Tips for Teachers

Ahhhh we said it, the dreaded ‘d’ word – DATA. Keeping on top of marking, grading, and data collection will have you high fiving your past self (we promise). Dedicate some time to catching up and grab these tips on our blog post to become a marking pro.

Tackle one corner at a time – #4 Organisation Tips for Teachers

If your classroom is a hot mess, tackle one corner, cupboard or space at a time. Just like you would at home, throw away or donate anything you don’t need.

Create labels so the students can stay accountable for helping you keep the space organised and don’t overfill cupboards or drawers.

Use containers to keep items neatly organised, plus this allows you to stack containers on top of each other if you have tall, narrow cupboards.

Teacher Organisational tip: Keep any resources or materials you regularly use in easy to grab positions. Move anything seasonal or used once a year up high or in those harder to reach places. Get these teacher toolbox labels here.

Purge the Papers – #5 Organisation Tips for Teachers

Teachers are professional paper collectors. Use it, file it or throw it. We like to keep a ‘To file’ folder in our desk drawer to keep everything together and batch file when we get a chance. You could even consider scanning anything of importance and having a digital filing system to delete the papers completely.

Create a weekly task list – #6 Organisation Tips for Teachers

We love ourselves a checklist because there is nothing more satisfying than crossing an item off, PLUS lists make room in our brain for more important things (like the students sitting in our classroom). Spend 10 mins to create a master list of weekly tasks you need to do. Keep this list in your teacher diary so you can refer back to it each week.

Teacher organisation tip: We have taken our checklist organisation to the next level and tried to minimise our thinking when it comes to lots of other recurring events in our classroom. We have checklists for new students and a term planning checklist. Check them out here.

Make systems that your students have ownership over -#7 Organisation Tips for Teachers

Being a teacher is a team sport, and your classroom is a shared space. Create systems that your students can get involved in. We love our easy to use class job system to help students be actively involved in keeping an organised classroom.